SPAIN

Spain. . Barcelona. 4/12/83. The artist Arjimon welcomes Bill Ritchie to this workshop where he teaches lithography. The videotape shows students hard at work making lithographs, intaglio plates, prints, hand-setting type, marbling paper, and bookbinding. There are studios for painting classes, too, plus classes in restoration.
The community school for the making of media related arts is a popular program in Europe. Traditions help; the tradition of the hand-made print, book, and allied handicrafts provides the mainstay for extensive teaching facilities and maintenance of high quality. Some learning centers have added restoration to their curricula, so as to instill a regard for past-times' creations. 13:00 Min. SA830412

Spain. . Barcelona. 4/12/82. The first visit to the paper-making workshop of Laurence Barker came when Czashka Ross, from New York City, was packing her works to return to her own studio, making ready for her next show of works on/in paper. She takes time to show examples, and then demonstrates for the camera how she paints with the paper pulp prepared especially for her method of working.
Alongside the art schools the studio tradition for learning and production of artworks is carried on around the world. It is sometimes the preferred means by which masters in the arts gain reasonable incomes; of more importance, their studios serve as meeting places for artists. The exchanges made possible in this way add significantly to art and craft. 6:00 Min. SA830413

Spain. . Barcelona. 4/13/83. Jacki Parry, Australian artist teaching in Scotland, traveled to Barcelona and is recorded as she begins her work with the American artist and paper maker, Laurence Barker. His artistry has established him as having made contributions in the new imagery possible by hand-papermaking media. Those like Jacki--artists, teachers, and graduate students who visit him--do so to learn from his experience and to use his excellent shop facility. Some gain the plans to build or improve on their own home facility, or to produce works for their exhibition plans. This recording is part of the most extensive taping sessions which concentrates on one process. (See video transcription, Papermaking with Laurence Barker.
A rare combination exists when you find artist collaborating with artist to achieve results from technical processes of the kind which should have been undertaken by technicians. However, technique in a kind of balance with artistry may be beyond the abilities of even the best technicians; or, technicians for so-called "intermediate technologies" may not be found. 1:32:00 Min. SA830414

Spain. . Barcelona. 4/15/83. Hands at work making the tapestries of the Spanish graphic artist M. A. Raventos is the main emphasis of this tape. There is a comparison her between the "scanning" idea behind the video screen (cathode ray tube) and the loom for the tapestry-makers. Can you see it? Another comparison lies with the Jacquard loom.
Hands and handwork play an important part in the continued emphasis in the debate about technology in art. The subject usually opens any discussion of the topic, is primarily of the most immediate concern. There are analogies in studying how the hand and handicrafts of past, old technologies and meaning were related. The loom, for example, was used for pictorial communication or expression (as in some styles of tapestries) as well as abstract or decorative designs. 8:00 Min. SA830415

Spain. . Barcelona. 4/14/83. This videotape is a complete document based on Jacki Parry, Australian artist and teacher from Glasgow, Scotland (Glasgow School of Art). She did this work in the spring of 1983 at the studio of Laurence Barker. A few glimpses of other artists working there about the same time (Allegre Ockler and Mary Scott, both from the U.S.) show the diversity of work which people do there. Laurence Barker himself acts as a collaborator with these artists when he is not doing his own artwork. Parry does a variety of things, and the videotape records each one; some are inventions necessitated by the nature of her ideas. There is a visible interplay between the requirements of the papermaking medium, the process, and the outcome of her work. Educationally, Jacki is a recipient of many helpful and necessary tips or considerations as Barker and others in his workshop contribute to the dialogs.
The workshops around the world are characteristically of three kinds: one, the studio type of shop, which has a particular style or individual at the lead; two the school, where the learning takes place by the free exchange and provision of information; and, third, the collective, which does not offer free information nor encourage educational work but is a production facility only. 1:25:00 Min. SA830416 (The 30-minute edited tape soundtrack is available online).

Spain. . Barcelona. 4/15/83. Barker, internationally-known for his art in hand-made paper, and Parry, artist and teacher at the Glasgow School of Art, perform the final operations in the production of her paper projects for the week. This recording completes the videotapes made in Barcelona; later, Parry is seen again on videotape made in her Glasgow studio apartment.
Hand papermaking continues to attract the serious attention of artists and the teachers of many art colleges take active roles in bringing the craft and artistry of hand made paper to the attention of their students. 3:00 Min. SA830417

Spain. . Bilbao. 4/27/83. Opening day at Feria Art Contemporaria, Bilbao, a display of almost every kind of artist in a sampling of many nations. Paintings, sculpture, graphics, installations, mixed media - this videotape provides a sample of the samples. Canadian artist Sue Schnee is recorded within her area, and Irish sculptor Joan Smith (and Charley, her husband / technical assistant), provide the visitors with their overview of the phenomenon of the international art fair.
Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of a new kind of museum for art in the form of the--international art fair--a kind of festival that grows beyond the scale of the regional art events and is the most important means existing for the visual arts to be seen since the introduction of the fine arts press. (See Smith, Anthony. Good-bye Gutenberg) 19:00 Min. SA830427